Beast from the East

The subject of these large-format paintings and bizarre figures by the Ukrainian artist Andriy Hir is the myths and superstitions of the Carpathian region. For many years, Hir has been researching the legends of the mountainous regions in western Ukraine and has found his own pictorial language to visually encode his knowledge and pass it on in an atmospheric manner. With impressive visual power, this profound and at the same time humorous work of research uses mysticism, magic and the underlying fears of an ancient cultural region to display an important spectrum of this year's theme, emotion.

Hir was a scholarship holder in Freising during the 2015 Transfer > Lviv / Ukraine artists' exchange. Under the title "Remix", current works by artists who participated in an earlier exchange project as part of the Upper Bavarian European Art Scholarship are presented at irregular intervals. Thus, visitors to the Künstlerhaus (house of artists) can follow the development of young artists from Europe and Upper Bavaria, and the contacts established through the exchange can also be lastingly sustained and enhanced on a professional artistic level.